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On This Day

  • 5-18-1048

    Omar Khayyam born in Nishapur, Persia. The mathematician, astronomer, and poet may have been the first to claim cubic equations--and hence angle trisection--could not be solved with straightedge and compass. Pierre Wantzel gave a proof in 1837.

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    Omar Khayyam
    Pierre Wantzel

  • 5-18-1850

    Oliver Heaviside, whose step function is used in the fields of control theory and signal processing, was born in London, England, on this day.

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    Oliver Heaviside
    Heaviside Step Function

  • 5-18-1872

    Logician Bertrand Russell, famous for the "Russell Paradox," born in Wales.

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    Bertrand Russell
    Russell Paradox

  • 5-18-1901

    Peirce wrote Plimpton about the Liber abaci of Fibonacci. Logician Charles Sanders Peirce wrote to George Arthur Plimpton, famous collector of rare mathematical books, describing what the contents of a newly acquired book must be were it indeed the great Liber abaci of Fibonacci. In 1949, Carolyn Eisele's discovery of this letter, still tucked into the back cover of the volume, began her career as a Peirce scholar.

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    Charles Peirce
    Leonardo Pisano Fibonacci